The present invention as disclosed in the paragraphs which follow can be employed in connection with an inspection and cutting apparatus such as what is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,702. The content of this previous patent is incorporated herein by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,702 addressed a perceived problem then existing in the industry relative to the processing of elongated articles such as sliced potatoes utilized for frozen French fries, and wherein the elongated articles were first aligned in transversely spaced lanes and then passed beneath individual lane electro-optical cameras for inspecting the French fries for defects. In the previous prior art arrangements, if defects were encountered, one or more knives on a rotating wheel was projected or propelled from the wheel to cut the defect from the article. Various earlier U.S. Patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,543,035 and 3,664,337 describe such earlier devices. These prior art devices were deemed to be not very effective because it was very difficult to process large volumes of product utilizing the equipment illustrated in these previous prior art patents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,702 also describes various other prior art attempts to solve the perceived limitations on the processing of elongated articles that might have defects. The inventors in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,520,702 and 6,923,028 for example, describe an invention which provides high volume inspection and cutting for removing defects from elongated articles with resulting equipment that is quite inexpensive and robust relative to its production capacity.
The device as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,702 for example, has been widely embraced by the food processing industry and has operated with a great degree of success through the years. While this apparatus as described in this prior art patent has operated quite reliably for several decades, there have been perceived shortcomings which have detracted from its usefulness. Chiefly, two perceived shortcomings have become evident through the continued use of the earlier mentioned apparatus. Firstly, and only occasionally, individual cutter knives employed in the apparatus as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,702, when rotated at predetermined operational speeds occasionally will prematurely move or be ejected to a radially outwardly extended cutting position and engage the elongated food product being processed without first being deployed by the cutting apparatus. This premature deployment of a cutting knife to the radially extended cutting position could occasionally cause the cutting knife to become damaged. In addition to the foregoing, the cutting knives employed, to date, have been fabricated from a synthetic material, and due to normal wear and tear, and routine operating conditions, such prior art cutting blades occasionally break and need to be replaced. This type of wear related failure is expected, from time-to-time, in devices of this type, however, depending upon the product to be cut, and inspected, such replacement of cutting blades can sometimes be time consuming, and inconvenient during typical food processing plant operations.
Therefore, a principal object of the present invention is to provide an improvement to the inspection cutting apparatus as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,702 and which provides improved performance and other operational characteristics not possible, heretofore, in a device such as what has been described in this previous patent.